Least Cost Diet for Children 2 to 3 Years in Malaysia Using Linear Programming Approach

Abstract

The early period of life, namely from birth to 2 years of age is critical for the promotion of optimal growth , brain development as well as health and behavioral development (Committee & Ministry, 2013). Thus, attaining the daily required nutrition during this stage of life is very crucial because nutrition is strongly associated with the children’s development at the very young age (Poh et al., 2018). It is a major challenge in Malaysia to ensure children get proper balance diet, especially for families with low socioeconomic status. As reported in the “Edge Weekly”, the review concomitantly found that 24.9% or nearly one in four children in Malaysia experienced moderate or severe food insecurity due to financial constraints (Ho, n.d.). Wong et al. emphasized the three main factors associated with child malnutrition, which include low socioeconomic status and household food insecurity which are strongly associated with the financial background of a family (Wong, Moy, & Nair, 2014). Therefore, in this study, a linear programming diet model is used to determine an affordable cheapest basket of food items that satisfy the daily recommended nutritional requirements for children between 2-3 years old in Malaysia. POM-QM for Windows Version 5.2 by Howard J. Weiss is used. Initial finding shows that the average costs are RM2.69. This food basket consists of 474g of egg, 55g of tofu, 29g of papaya, 5g of spinach and 201g of potato. With this food basket and the estimated food expenditure, the parents can save about 40% of their child’s daily food expenditure. Sensitivity analyses are also performed to test the robustness of the findings.